Feminist Review blog believes that all opinions - positive and critical - are valuable and seeks to give voice to communities that remain on the margins. Our mission is to write reviews from feminist perspectives to explore the world through an anti-oppression lens.
We recognize that there are many feminisms and provide a space where those differences can be represented and explored. (That means we want you to add your opinions too.)
0 comments

Charlott, the main character of Bitter Pie #18 , reminds me of Hothead
Paisan, another tough woman in an independent comic who wore shirts with thoughtprovoking slogans and questioned the world’s absurdity.
In this installment, Charlott finds herself locked away in a mental institution (The Betty
Rubble Clinic) where she is forced to break her heroin habit. She is literally confined with a bunch of characters. Lucy of Peanuts is Charlott’s psychiatrist, sitting in a booth proclaiming her fee, updated from 5 cents to $50. Other patients on the ward include
Cathy and Nancy from the funny pages, Pippi Longstocking, and Velma from Scooby-
Doo .
After six weeks with no improvement and an actual increase in anger, Lucy and Betty
Rubble herself decide to subject Charlott to a new experimental treatment. She is turned over to Dr. Bjorkian for months and months of “singing” therapy. Finally Dr. Bjorkian announces that Charlott’s treatment is complete and she will soon go home. Charlott tells
Pippi that she’s getting out of the hospital, and Pippi reminds her of the good deal they have in the clinic, with free food, free beds, and free drugs. When Charlott counters that in the clinic their independence is restricted, Pippi points to her head and says,
“Freedom’s IN HERE Charlott…it’s not OUT THERE…anywhere.” Of course, two pages later when the story takes a turn to the macabre, this optimistic thought is forgotten.
The black and white drawings in this publication are well done and clever. Especially haunting is the image on the first page of Charlott about to receive an electroshock treatment. Nancy, Lucy, and Betty Rubble may have been lifted from official sources and inserted where needed, but the artist may be a particularly clever imitator. Serene looking photos of pop songstress Bjork represent Dr. Bjorkian. As in all good comics, the art here is as important as the dialogue and does its job to help move the plot along.
I greatly enjoyed touches like Velma’s media hating paranoia, the number 13 tattooed on
Charlott’s arm, and shirts with slogans like “Why Bother” and “You fill me with inertia.”
The author/artist also takes jabs at the Western psychiatric model, especially the dependence on pharmaceuticals and experimental therapies. She seems to believe that treatments doled out in mental hospitals don’t really work because they don’t touch the core of patients’ problems.
Despite the dark themes of Bitter Pie #18, I would like to read upcoming issues so I can find out what happens to Charlott and the other characters. I am also interested in all the

issues that came before and the events that brought Charlott to The Betty Rubble Clinic.
This comic was a quick read that I got through in less than ten minutes, but it has kept me thinking long after seeing the last page.
Review by Chantel C. Guidry
0 comments
Key Terms: comics , drugs , mental health , pharmaceuticals , zine
By Chris Ver Weil
Arcade Publishing
Starbucks Nation is a confusing, weird novel about things most people don’t understand.
I have to admit that within the first several pages, even though I’d read the book jacket, I had no idea what this book was about. By that, I don’t mean that I didn’t understand the plot (though that turned out to be one of the novel’s most confusing and unfortunate aspects); I literally could not follow the writer’s unusual train of thought and namedropping about Starbucks' cup sizes and pit bulls. I felt like I was simultaneously being swindled and harassed as I slogged through short, disjointed chapters. Screenplays and over-the-counter drug cocktails known as “secret handshakes,” prescribed by a restaurant dishwasher may be a part of some struggling Hollywood writer’s daily existence, but I can’t pretend to care about the dismal life of a swearing, crude, separated, reality showobsessed pop icon who finds a portal to an alternate universe in his backyard. I can’t suspend reality to understand this bewildering book, and I have little incentive to do so.
Starbucks Nation , written by a man who clearly cannot escape his own Studio City tunnel vision, is especially offensive to a radical feminist sensibility. With offensive references in thongs, “maginas,” and disempowering sexual positions littering the pages, I was

constantly sickened by thinly veiled misogynist language. This book also reeks of a procapitalist, anti-human rights agenda – glorifying Starbucks culture and using a string of high-end brand names doesn’t exactly document the path to liberation for anyone. This book is uncomfortable, unfunny, and unnecessary. Steer clear.
Review by Brittany Shoot
1 comments
Key Terms: capitalism , misogyny , novel , Pop Culture
By Lisa Petrucci
Sublime Stitching
I had never before attempted embroidery until I received Sublime Stitching’s Artist
Series #4 embroidery patterns, “Liddle Kiddle” designs drawn by artist and illustrator
Lisa Petrucci. The front of the packet promises “any skill level” and “EZ how 2,” and it’s true! By following the included instructions, I was embroidering immediately, even though I’m not a particularly gifted textile crafter. With these patterns, anyone who can sew on a button should be able to embroidery right away.
This packet includes thirteen different designs (a cutesy devil, an adorable angel, a sexy flower, a fluffy poodle, and a sweet kitten among them) on an 8½” x 11” sheet. To make the transfer, a design is cut from the large sheet and then ironed on to the fabric
(preferably cotton or a poly-cotton blend in a light color) to be embellished.
Each transfer makes up to eight imprints, and when the designs no longer transfer, they work as templates for tracing with carbon paper or for use with a transfer pen. The designs aren’t only for embroidery, but can also be used for crewel, needlepoint, and fabric painting, as well as for wood, leather, and paper crafts. Getting so many uses from

these patterns makes them a really excellent value.
As the Sublime Stitching website points out, there are no charts and no counting necessary with these designs. After I transferred the pattern onto my fabric, I stitched along the lines with embroidery floss in the colors of my choice. I really enjoyed deciding what colors to use; my favorite part of the process was designing my own project and making it look the way I imagined it.
Because this set only provides patterns, I had to acquire an embroidery hoop, a needle, and embroidery floss. I already had a needle, and I picked up a hoop and floss (and handkerchiefs on which to transfer the designs) at thrift stores I frequent. I didn’t find the colors I want to use for the little devil, so I will probably buy new floss for her, but I was able to get started without spending a lot of money.
I think these patterns are fabulously fun and easy to use. I am absolutely satisfied and can’t think of a single drawback. Sublime Stitching and Lisa Petrucci rock!
Review by Chantel C. Guidry
1 comments
Key Terms: crafts , embroidery , how to
By Jeffrey Hopkins
Snow Lion
Jeffrey Hopkins had the privilege to travel as the Dalai Lama’s chief interpreter on book tours from 1979-1989. During this time it seems as though Hopkins became enchanted by

one of His Holiness’ key phrases: “Everyone wants happiness and does not want suffering.” In
A Truthful Heart , Mr. Hopkins writes how that simple phrase can relate to all sentient beings, and actually make a difference as to how you can approach every situation and obstacle.
Before launching into how this small phrase can enlighten and awaken compassion into all, Hopkins provides a glimpse into his interesting younger years. He points out that even as he is a perpetual student of Tibetan thought, he had a most deviant youth. This realization of his humanity, and ability for a rebellious kid from Rhode Island to grow up and become a student and later interpreter for the Dalai Lama, allows his audience to know that surely, anyone can benefit from some Buddhist philosophy. We can all stand to know how to become more kind, caring and full of love and compassion for all beings, can’t we?
Hopkins directs his audience on how to fully cultivate compassion through meditative practices. However, he does this in a manner than can be appreciated by those who have never meditated, and who might not plan on ever doing so. These meditations can simply translate into nice thoughts to have while dealing with difficult situations. For example, by simply believing that at one point in your lives (this even being previous lives if you are so inclined to believe) that every being has at one point been your close friend, it is easy to realize how every person should then be treated.
The beauty of A Truthful Heart is that it’s easy to take its message with you. Every day can be a bit brighter, if you can just presume that all beings want happiness for themselves, even if it somehow hurts you in the process. Realizing that we are all impertinent beings is a huge step, as Hopkins points out, into visualizing true human potential.
Review by A. Mariel Westermeyer
0 comments
Key Terms: Buddhism , dalai lama , meditation , self-help , Tibetan Buddhism

Edited by Shari MacDonald Strong
Seal Press
In The Maternal Is Political , forty-three writers examine the connection between their transformative experience as mothers and their political engagement both nationally and globally. This is a collection about the interconnections between the personal and the political, the familial and social, and it addresses some basic questions: How does motherhood transform women’s political consciousness? How do mothers weave activism into their lives? Does the very act of becoming a mother make one more suitable for and engaged in movements for social change? What is the link between the choices mothers make in their personal lives and the ones they make in their communities and the world at large?
The Maternal Is Political — edited by Shari MacDonald Strong, a senior editor and political columnist at Literary Mama — attempts to answer these questions and more in forty-three literary essays by well- and lesser-known writers, including Rebecca Walker,
Marion Winik, Barbara Kingsolver, Anne Lamott, Susie Bright, Marrit Ingman and J.
Anderson Coats.
The collection is separated into three sections — “Believe,” “Teach,” and “Act” — that compel the reader on a journey toward full political engagement. Some of the essays are more concerned with personal reflection while others serve as blueprints for political engagement. In fact, the book does not aim to be a leisurely armchair read, but a call to action. (“Vote mother!” implores Strong in the introduction.)
The foreword — written by Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, cofounder of MomsRising.org
— paints a bleak picture of mothers’ rights in the United States (from a lack of paid maternity leave to hiring discrimination) and calls on mothers to “embrace the one thing we have in common” and change the world for themselves and all mothers. She also asks readers to “watch the personal become political….Then take the next step and work for a peaceful revolution of the way we support families in America.”

This is not a new call to action, and national and global societies have benefited for years from the powerful changes wrought by mothers who became political revolutionaries.
Still, collections like The Maternal Is Political insist that we must continue to examine our personal beliefs and political choices. The book insists that there is still a need for mothers to join in consciousness-raising and “sharing stories” to move themselves and others toward social activism.
There is a wide array of perspectives in the collection and a vast prism from which these mothers view the intersection of motherhood and social change. In “Mom, Interrupted,”
Marrit Ingman — whose memoir Inconsolable: How I Threw My Mental Health Out
With the Diapers was a wonderful contribution to examinations of motherhood and depression — offers another look at her experience with mental illness as she examines how living openly as a bipolar mother is a political act.
Susie Bright, in “First-Grade Values,” traverses the many political minefields on her daughter’s elementary-school playground as race, gender and class biases rear their ugly heads. And Alisa Gordaneer, in “All-Consumed: The Restoration of One Family’s
Values,” connects her families’ consumerist choices to their impact on the environment and other families’ children. She urges her kids to understand how the purchase of one plastic toy in America leads to poor air quality for children in China. (In no time, her son is checking with her to see if certain toys are just “CPC” or “Cheap Plastic Crap”.)
The “Act” section of the anthology features some of the most compelling essays, including “Performing Mother Activism,” by Beth Osnes, a founder of
Mothers Acting
Up
; “The Born,” by Anne Lamott, about religion and pro-choice activism; and “Good
Riddance, Attention Whore,” by Cindy Sheehan, the peace-activist mother of a son,
Casey, who was killed in Iraq. Sheehan garnered international press coverage after protesting the war outside President Bush’s Texas ranch. (“He was killed by his own country, which is beholden to and run by a war machine,” she writes.)
Motherhood — as any mother knows — is a time of intense personal transformation and, often, for some, overwhelming isolation. For others, it is also the beginning of a new consciousness and awareness of the needs of other human beings, the needs of others beyond self. The Maternal Is Political is a reminder that becoming a mother is a process that should not signal the end of political and social engagement, but in fact, should welcome the beginning. The many various takes on “social change” at work here exemplify the many different feminisms that mothers practice today. There is no one
“right” activism, the collection ultimately states, yet there is - and will always be - a world beyond our doors, filled with other mothers, fathers, children, and communities that need impassioned activist mothers ready to engage with and heal it.
Review by E.J.
1 comments
Key Terms: anthology , collection , feminism , feminist , global feminism , literature , motherhood , politics , women's rights

By Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill S. Tietjen
HarperCollins
Her Story is a timeline illustrating the accomplishments of American women, beginning in 1587 with the introduction of Virginia Dare and ending in 2007 amid the usual suspects, like Oprah Winfrey, as well as a variety of current female political and industry leaders. The book contains a lot of pictures with a short blurb about each person and occasionally a general relevant fact about a time period - such as The Women’s Peace
Party's founding in 1915. The layout of the book takes some getting used to; the pages seem overly busy at first, but it doesn’t take long for the little snippets of information coupled with terrific photographs to take over the reader’s attention and by the end of the book, it seems a perfect way to display the information.
Charlotte S. Waisman and Jill S. Tietjen penned the book intending to pique the curiosity of the reader, not to offer a great deal of detail about any particular woman, which is unsatisfying, by definition, but the authors were successful in their endeavor. They begin with an introduction by Madeleine Albright followed by some explanation by the authors of how their idea originated and developed. They took the opportunity to ask the
(assumed) female reader to honor her own accomplishments. This flows nicely into what the book can best do, which is inspire. There is nothing quite like learning about the overwhelming obstacles some women have overcome to accomplish amazing things. For instance, Jeannette Rankin, the first female member of the House of Representatives, was elected to office in 1917, three years before she was permitted to even vote. Not only that, but several years before they could vote, women were leading the movements to abolish slavery and child labor as well as organizing workers’ unions.
Wherever there is an historical injustice, it seems there are women working to correct it.
This book’s celebration doesn’t fit any stereotype of a “great” woman. Alongside the protesters of the 1968 Miss America Pageant, there are actors and business executives, opera singers and scientists. There are many examples of the first [fill in the race/ethnicity] woman to [fill in the achievement]. Clearly the authors were sensitive to the issue of inclusiveness and careful to include the many contributions of women of color - in particular, of African American women.
Many of the stories you know – like the spunky Abigail Adams who told her husband he’d better “remember the ladies" when forming this new government of his or the ladies would be revolting, but there’s plenty that goes beyond common knowledge - unless

everyone knows that no law firm would hire Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg after she’d graduated first in her class from Harvard Law in 1959 because she was “Jewish and a mother.”
Her Story is designed to be interesting and inspiring, but not in-depth or scholarly. It would make a great gift for a young woman just graduating from high school or, better yet, middle school.
Review by Staci Schoff
1 comments
Key Terms: american history , women's history
By Elise Blackwell
Unbridled Books
It is the goal of each generation to make things better for the next, if for no other reason than to be able to tell those whippersnappers how tough things used to be. How a parent or revolutionary goes about exacting this change remains to be judged by their children and grandchildren, sometimes unfairly applying the standards of a new, more civilized time. Such is the situation of Louis, the protagonist of The Unnatural History of Cypress
Parish . Son to one of the most important men in his parish, Louis frequently questions the sometimes brutal methods his father has used to stay in power. His taste is rather less discerning when it comes to his own actions and the sorts of men he begins to associate with in his advancing career. The climax of the book comes as Louis and his father confront each other's moral failings just as their lives are about to be destroyed. The novel is set against the backdrop of the historical event of the flood of 1927, and as their relationship deteriorates, so does any hope of saving their home.
The unnaturalness referred to in the title is that Cypress Parish was deliberately sacrificed, subjecting it to much greater damage than would have occurred without

intervention, to protect business interests in New Orleans. The parallels to the flood following Hurricane Katrina are too numerous to mention all of them, but implicit in the story is the argument that “men of power” often make decisions they have no right to: who gets information, whose home is destroyed, who cleans up after the mistake that was not exactly a mistake. The agenda of the author is obvious from the beginning when
Louis, now an elderly scientist, begins narrating the tale of this earlier flood as he awaits
Katrina's arrival.
One of the most remarkable and lovely parts of this book is the way its form marries content. The book is divided into three parts. Within each part are small sections, some as short half a page, others going on for significantly longer, but there are no chapters, no breaks within each section. Despite reports from local authorities, the residents in
Cypress Parish know the flood is coming. As it approaches, teenage Louis begins to write a natural history of the area, hoping to catalog its flora and fauna before they are washed away. What he seems to most keenly observe is the Mississippi River itself. Although it seems to be a monolith of water, Louis observes current running backwards for miles, and swirling eddies that can (and have) swallowed a whole, unfortunate, cow.
The Unnatural History of Cypress Parish is structured like the river: the many parts, history, poetry, power, love, all swirl the reader away until escape is unavoidable.
Blackwell's language supports this, alternating between transcendent and ordinary, mixing in images of a dam bursting with that of Pliny the Elder dying in the arms of his slaves, a young leper putting pins in his fingertips, and the constant motifs of power and poverty.
Like the Mississippi, the book is awe-inspiring. One cannot help but be moved by its power, and easily overlooks any unevenness in deference to its small beauties and large scale force.
Review by H. V. Cramond
0 comments
Key Terms: father son , fiction , historical fiction , New Orleans , power

Citybird Records
Do we listen to music to soar, to laugh, to rock to the beat, or rise to a higher consciousness? The right album can do all that, and Bridges and Powerlines’ debut,
Ghost Types is such an album.
The music stumbles and falls at the beginning in “Uncalibrated,” but it is quite deliberate, as this group has been described as quirky. Bridges and Powerlines make pretty music and a hard-driven beat duke it out. "Floods and Fields” starts out with distinct finger picking. Then the music rises like a wave and takes off like a galloping horse. The beat is good on "The Golden Age," but it's great on “The Thieves, They are Everywhere,” which scintillates, melding with the beautiful vocals. On "Half a Cent,” the music rocks, and by the time we’ve reached “Middle Child,” “The Ghost Types,” “New Mexico” and the rest, the sound is perfectly exhilarating. At this point, what becomes paramount is the story.
The words are what New York power pop band Bridges and Powerlines is all about.
Andrew Wood, Keith Sigel, and John Crockett - who have been compared to ‘80s British post-punk bands and ‘60s garage bands - spent much of 2007 “meticulously crafting a diverse collection of stories about male protagonists struggling with maturity in the face of boyhood impulses.” You would have to listen to this album more than once to get all of the words.
Ghost Types is a typical rock album in that, most of the time, all of the musical instruments, including vocals, are generally at the same volume. Since their lyrics are important to them, the group might want to consider making the vocals more prominent than the rest of the instruments on future albums.
One intriguing, quirky, aspect of this CD is the cover art, which depicts old bicycles.
When asked whether these images were relevant to the music, Keith, speaking for the band, said, “the theme of the record is persistence of childish emotions and memories into adulthood, sort of the conflict of happy childhood images with the reality of a tough adult world… We wanted the album art to have a strong image that reflected this idea of a nostalgic childhood image – the cover is supposed to be a ghost bicycle.”
Review by Patricia Ethelwyn Lang
0 comments

Key Terms: garage rock , post punk , rock
Cochon Records
I had no clue what I was getting into when I agreed to review this album. I researched what little I could find and hoped for the best. Once the music started, I realized that I had walked into a trio whose expertise is electronic chaos.
When musicians Jesse Hall and Shoko Horikawa (formerly of the band Meyow) met
Ryan Brundage in 2002, the Experimental Dental School was born. The Oakland-based trio now have their music released on labels in the United States, Japan, Sweden,
Australia, Germany, Italy, and Portugal. This album is impressive in its uniqueness.
Occasionally when listening to a song I would be taken back to Frank Zappa or Devo.
Jane Doe Loves Me has an odd, but catchy sound. (Picture a dirtier, grittier Devo under a harder punk umbrella flipping you off.)
Now this might be offensive to some, but I mean this with the utmost respect. Do you remember the scene in Revenge of the Nerds when they formed a band and competed?
This album reminded me of that. Just as that was an awesome moment in film, this was a fantastic experience in music.
Review by TygerLily Ernst
0 comments
Key Terms: electronic , noise , punk

By Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Houghton Mifflin
I love fairytales and I think, in Princess Ben
, I’ve found a new favorite. The novel, by
Catherine Gilbert Murdock, has been labeled good reading material for seventh, eighth, and ninth grade girls. While I’m sure that’s true, I loved it and I’m in eighteenth grade!
Princess Ben follows the story of Benevolence, the princess of Montagne, a small sovereign nation constantly under attack by a neighboring kingdom, Drachensbett. It is, like many fairytales, a coming-of-age story. At fourteen, Benevolence’s parents are killed and, with no direct heir of her own, Queen Sophia (the title character’s aunt) embarks on a mission to make a proper princess out of Ben (as she is called). Though Ben resists, she is heir to the throne and through trials and tribulations — many of her own making — she manages to find herself and become a competent leader along the way.
The book’s flowery language was off-putting at first, but once I got used to it, it was barely noticeable. What made this novel a winner for me, however, was the author’s subtle insertion of parts of many traditional fairytales, including Snow White , Sleeping
Beauty , Rumpelstiltskin , Cinderella , Jack & the Beanstalk , Rapunzel , and Hansel &
Gretel . And those are only the ones I recognized upon a first reading. Since I’m only very familiar with European fables, I may have missed hints of other stories.
Murdock makes a point to have the title character appear realistic. Princess Ben isn’t dainty, well-mannered, or quaint — and that’s a good thing. She’s brave and idealistic and, at the beginning, naïve. In fact, she has the independence (in a fairytale, no less) to vow that she will never marry. Benevolence isn’t your standard, run-of-the-mill princess; she has spirit, belief, and strength of character. Though her story is fanciful and magical, it’s also relatable and applicable to the real struggles real girls face every day.
Review by Viannah Duncan
0 comments
Key Terms: coming of age , fairytale , fantasy , young adult

By Jessica Mills
AK Press
A truly alternative parenting guidebook has hit the shelves. Combining the notion that the personal is political with thorough scientific research, activist-musician-mother Jessica
Mills makes a strong case in My Mother Wears Combat Boots that “parenting is living a life of daily revolution.”
The advice is organized chronologically by chapter, beginning with a pregnancy section and ending with the 5-year-old section. In the first chapter, Mills guides the reader through the biological changes occurring during every month of the pregnancy while offering her personal month-by-month experiences. The entire book follows in a similar fashion as she transforms her own experiences into valuable scientific and societal knowledge, all the while challenging traditional ideas about "good parenting."
She tackles difficult questions such as: Is male circumcision necessary? Are hospitals the safest places for birthing? Does gender prejudice begin from the moment a baby is born?
Should parents implement strict deadlines for when their child should begin weaning and potty training? How can a parent raise an emotionally and physically healthy child when junk food and television are constantly marketed to children? How can parents build, join, and maintain communities in an isolation-structured society?
The guidebook is a great read on many levels. Mills brilliantly combines her own idealism with practical advice on how to directly implement theory. She provides radicals, punks, organizers, and activists with hope - if not for the lives of their own

children, then their friends’ children, or the future of our society as a whole. Instead of arguing that her choices are the only right choices, Mills presents alluring and factuallysupported insights while allowing the reader to decide.
While My Mother Wears Combat Boots is riddled with interesting advice for musicianparents, it caters too often to a certain punk-musician lifestyle while likely excluding the majority of readers. Additionally, Mills’ alternative parenting philosophy is revolutionary and fascinating to learn about, but seems, at times, to avoid setting any guidelines and boundaries for children. Her own child’s "terrible twos" behavior might be a result of over-extending her parenting philosophy. However, these minor qualms do not weaken the strongest argument made in the guidebook, that parenting can be a truly revolutionary lifelong act.
Review by Arwa Ibrahim
1 comments
Key Terms: activism , father , guidebook , mother , parents , political , punk
By Nina Revoyr
Akashic Books
The Age of Dreaming is a deliciously well-written novel about a Hollywood silent film actor having to face his past successes and reconsider the life he once had. Jun Nakayama arrived to America from Japan in order to go to college. Days before he was to return home, he went to the theatre and thought that he could do better than the actors he saw perform on stage. Postponing his return trip, Jun becomes a well-received stage actor, and is eventually noticed by a Hollywood director and actress. As is expected, Jun never returns to Japan, and quickly becomes a young Hollywood star.
But this novel is not that easy in plot, storyline, and happy endings. The racial politics of the early 1900s is a heavy presence in the novel, as Revoyr recreates the challenges for a

Japanese actor to constantly play a stereotypical villainous “yellow Jap” on the screen.
The Age of Dreaming continuously asks if the benefits of having a Japanese man on screen outweigh the social cost of reinforcing stereotypes. Revoyr is able to show this struggle through the negative responses that California’s Little Tokyo neighborhood has to the Japanese star, and Jun’s own belief that his home country would never want him to return.
The racial politics of the novel are also important to the overall plot. You see, Jun’s career abruptly ended when the famous British director Ashley Tyler was found murdered. A burning star that vanishes off the screen without a trace, Jun was an overnight success, became the most recognized and beloved Hollywood actor for over ten years, and then became forgotten overnight. Jun stopped acting, and his fan base didn’t even seem to notice. The murder of Ashley Tyler becomes a wonderful who-dun-it aspect to the novel, and Revoyr doesn’t let us know the answer until the final pages.
The decline of Jun’s successful career is a mixture of racial politics, police investigation, and personal choice. The novel opens in 1964, over 20 years since Jun’s last film, with a phone call from a man who wants to interview Jun for a magazine article he is writing about a new silent film theatre that is opening. Jun is astonished that someone even knows who he is. Jun has been living a simple life since Ashley’s murder, and has become used to being an unrecognizable face. This turn of events that opens the novel, allows us to learn of Jun’s life through flashbacks, the telling of stories to a reporter, and
Jun’s present day considerations of if he should return to acting.
While The Age of Dreaming could almost slip into a quiet and calm novel, Revoyr’s rich writing style and attention to detail makes if impossible for the story to fall into that description. While the story is a quiet one — almost a meditation on life events told from an aging Japanese man — Revoyr’s writing style brings out the exciting aspects and characteristics of Jun’s life in every word. Combining elements of mystery and historical fiction, Revoyr recreates early Hollywood perfectly.
Review by Chelsey Clammer
0 comments
Key Terms: historical fiction , Japan , mystery , novel , race , stereotypes

ArtistShare
From the little I have read about Kate Schutt, I expected to hear something akin to the
Lilith Fair line-up. But the moment I clicked play, I was treated to a whisper of Billie
Holliday and Michelle Shocked’s love child.
Educated on the east coast, (She studyed how jazz influences modern poetry at Harvard, and at Berklee College of Music, she studied jazz guitar.), she now lives in Toronto, where she strives to make a name for herself in the world of jazz. No Love Lost was produced by Schutt and put out by ArtistShare, home to such talent as ex-Phish lead,
Trey Anastasio.
Schutt's work has a strong, honest feel - from the piano solo on "How Much In Love" to the up-tempo blues of "Peter Please." This album sets the stage, not of what is but what should be. When you hear Schutt's music, you should be in a upscale lounge looking at her under a spotlight. Her talent is prolific.
In addition to singing, she plays an 8-string guitar/bass hybrid, electric guitar, and bass on
No Love Lost . When it's over, it leaves you relaxed, content to watch the clouds move.
Review by TygerLily Ernst
0 comments
Key Terms: jazz , songwriter

Andy Eats Only Candy
Andy Eats Only Candy (also known as Finnish student, designer and textile maker Niina
Katinka) is an incredibly Earth-friendly little outfit that specializes in silk-screening, oneinch buttons, and various clothing and purses. With a focus on squirrels, rabbits and birds, the designs are cute and a tad whimsical, without being too precious. All of the silk-screening is done with environmentally-friendly, water-based ink, and whenever possible, items are shipped with recycled or recyclable packing materials.
The patch I received is quite large, which is perhaps the only real drawback from my perspective. It wouldn’t easily fit on the back of a sweatshirt or jacket (my favorite place to adhere patches), but it would fit on a large messenger bag.
Andy Eats Only Candy has perfect feedback ratings, and refunds are also allowed, which says a lot about a designer’s commitment to her work and to your satisfaction. Hosted online in an Etsy storefront, the selection can be a bit limited, but custom orders are available and the merchandise rotates frequently.
Supporting a student and fledgling designer with a pleasant selection of green products makes this an easy call. If you’ve got some extra cash and need a new tote, check her out.
Review by Brittany Shoot
0 comments
Key Terms: design , environment , green , patch
Saddle Creek Records

I stepped onto my balcony in the bright, cool morning and put in my earphones. Once I pressed play, everything seemed to slow down. As though following the tempo of this album, traffic slowed from its Grand Theft Auto pace and enjoyed the sunshine.
Having been compared to The Mountain Goats and Iron & Wine - with lyrics like “I’ve been dying for a year and ten days” or “It's so hard to love your body from the ground” -
Neva Dinova’s music has that special something you can’t quite figure out. Whether country or rock, this music has a dark ethereal feel, at times, accompanied with the tone of a break up (from a guy's point of view). When listening to You May Already Be
Dreaming , initially, my thought was that this is a CD you should get stoned to.
Made up of Heath Koontz, Jake Bellows, Mike Kratky, Tim Haes, and Roger Lewis,
Neva Dinova got its start in 1993 in the cornfields of Omaha, NE. The band got its name from singer Jake Bellow’s grandmother.
You May Already Be Dreaming is their third album with Saddle Creek Records. Even with a flood wiping out some of their equipment and a barroom brawl leaving Bellows with a blown out ear drum, they came out of these experiences with a strong album.
Review by TygerLily Ernst
0 comments
Key Terms: alt country , dark , ethereal , rock
By Margaret Lazarus Dean
Simon and Schuster
Margaret Lazarus Dean uses an American tragedy, the space shuttle Challenger explosion, as the backdrop of her charming coming-of-age novel, The Time It Takes to
Fall . The heroine of the story is Dolores Gray, who is just entering the 7th grade. She

lives with her mother, Deborah; her father, Frank; and her 5-year-old sister, Delia in
Palmetto Park, a fictitious town near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Dolores is, in many ways, just like every other 11-year-old kid. She is insecure, wants to fit in with the popular girls, and is developing an interest in boys - yet Dolores is a world apart from her peers. She is an intelligent young woman with an avid interest in physics and a dream of someday becoming an astronaut. Dolores chronicles this dream in an inspiring space scrapbook. Any adult with a goal or high aspirations could learn from
Dolores’ practice of keeping a journal.
The author separates the book into sections according to the mechanical terms relating to the space shuttle - Operational, Launch Safety, Launch Delays, and Erosion - correlating this terminology with Dolores’ daily life experiences. For example, in "Operational," we learn that Dolores’ father has just been laid off temporarily from NASA, but the family is able to function and stay operational because her mother finds a job in order to contribute to the family income.
Dolores’ father is a technician who works on the solid rocket boosters, a very important mechanical component of the shuttles. He wants Dolores to someday become a technician. She doesn’t have the heart to tell him that she doesn’t want to follow this path; rather, she wants to follow in the footsteps of her idol, astronaut Judith Resnik.
Dolores and her father often go together to see the space shuttle launches.
Dolores’ most interesting relationship is with Eric Biersdorfer. Eric, like Dolores, is an exceptional student and has an interest in science, but is a bit of an outsider. Eric’s father is the Director of Launch Safety and plays a pivotal role in the story in terms of Dolores’ father’s career with NASA - and also in the relationship between her mother and father.
Dolores is fascinated with Eric, but feels that she will risk her popularity if she befriends him.
In spite of the looming tragedy of the shuttle explosion, The Time It Takes to Fall is an enjoyable read with interesting characters and family dynamics. It was nice how Dolores’ father took an active role in raising his daughters while their mother was away allowing him to build a strong, albeit rocky relationship with Dolores. Young girls like Dolores need positive role models - such as astronaut Judith Resnik. The novel illustrates how important it is to encourage young women to develop their interests and talents in many areas including science. Even though this novel is for adults, teenagers will also enjoy this story.
Review by Su Lin Mangan
0 comments
Key Terms: astronaut , coming of age , novel , physics , science , space

Minty Fresh
Wrongkong bounces through the speakers with a mix of haunting electronic and club sounds. They defy typical song structures through their use of daring beats and tempos, which makes their self-titled debut album both energetic and soothing. You may just find yourself closing your eyes to fully absorb the harmonies on such tracks as “Wide Open” and “Hiding.”
Paired with the melodies, however, are power-pop songs such as “Closer” and
“Lovesick.” Listening to these tracks has a high probability of resulting in the sudden urge to dance around whatever room you happen to be in. “Real Boy” will make you wonder if you’ve flashbacked to the days of disco, but, unlike the cheesy songs of the era, you’ll choose to replay Wrongkong over and over again.
Fronted by female singer Cyrena, the lyrics are infused with phrases that many women can relate to. These include “it’s not easy to exist going unnoticed,” “you try to define me, but you don’t know where I was,” and “I love how you use me, soon I’m garbage then you’ll lose me and I’m free as a dove” (which anyone who has ever been used can belt out with fervency). Call me biased, but it is always refreshing to hear powerful female vocals from an up-and-coming band since many of today’s mainstream groups are headlined by men. So, if you’re looking for musical refreshment this latest act from
Minty Fresh Records will certainly quench your thirst.
Review by Michelle Tooker
0 comments
Key Terms: electronic , Germany , pop

By Alice Medrich
Artisan
Tart is no longer a four letter word, thanks to bakery chef extraordinaire (and three-time cookbook award winner) Alice Medrich. The most amazing thing about her sublime dessert concoctions is that she has whipped up her pastries using fresh, organic ingredients combined in stunningly elegant and inventive ways. Eschewing the usual lifespan-threatening sugary glazes, frostings, and fillings, Pure Dessert offers sweets created with whole grains, exotic herbs and spices, and a delightful array of handmade cheeses. And she doesn’t stop with just a selection of tangy tarts. This cookbook offers
150 revolutionary recipes, including cookies, cakes, tortes, ice creams, sorbets, soufflés, puddings, and even flan.
The element of surprise is keen. I’ve never seen dessert photographs that looked so simultaneously decadent and refreshingly clean. Tearing my hungry gaze from the gorgeous visuals, I read ingredients such as: saffron, cardamom pods, dark rum, cocoa beans, kefir cheese, buckwheat, fine sea salt, jasmine tea, tahini, and black sesame.
(Don’t worry, kids, there’s chocolate involved and it’s good for you, too!) Using these and more ingredients, plus a selection of unsprayed organic fruits, Medrich serves up delights such as flan with a raw sugar sauce, buckwheat strawberry shortcake, ricotta and lace cookies, Guinness ice cream, chestnut-walnut meringues and raspberry-chocolate chunk muffins.
An enchanting cookbook, Pure Dessert shares with us Medrich’s tinkering with flavors and textures like a scientist in her lab. Some of the questions she muses upon as she mixes: “Does cold cream or hot cream do a better job coaxing out the flavor of mint leaves or rose petals? Why is it that dusting a warm brownie with spices gives it an enticing aromatic nose, whereas putting the spice in the batter blurs the chocolate flavor?”
Best of all, Medrich’s recipes are all easy to follow, fanciful yet pure, and deliciously healthy with a commitment to quality ingredients. Pass the dessert tray, please!
Review by Cheryl Reeves

0 comments
Key Terms: cookbook , dessert , organic
Paul Reeves Entertainment
Rise & Shine , the sophomore album by country duo Fanny Grace, is pleasant, wellproduced, up tempo, contemporary country-rock with a postfeminist sensibility.
Writer/producer/guitarist Paul Reeves and co-writer/lead singer Carmen Meja have turned out a collection of sassy-yet-vulnerable-women-in-pickups songs in the best Dixie
Chicks tradition. John Carter Cash (son of the late country legends June Carter and
Johnny Cash) produced the album, giving it an extra helping of country-roots cred. (In a nod to Cash’s heritage, the record includes the Johnny Cash-penned “My Cowboy’s Last
Ride” and closes with the Carter family classic “The Storms are on the Ocean”)
Nearly all of the songs on the record are written from a female point of view, and the album is most interesting when it explores the thoughts and lives of modern working class women. “Soon Be Home,” the second track, starts off sounding like a standard postbreakup song, but with the mention of the “yellow ribbon on the trunk of my car” it becomes clear that we’re listening to the thoughts of a woman waiting for her man to return from an overseas deployment. In the rocker “Don’t Want it All,” which is maybe the most interesting song on the record, we enter the life of a cash-strapped woman who has to choose between buying a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk (a situation more and more of us have come to relate to in the past few months). The most interesting part of this song is that the flat broke narrator isn’t dreaming of a Stetson-wearing, truck driving
Prince Charming to rescue her from counting change to buy groceries; she’s just doing her best to make it through.
None of the songs on this album are groundbreaking, musically or lyrically, and if Reeves and Meja haven’t been directly influenced by the Dixie Chicks (Meja doesn’t quite have
Natalie Maines’s earthy sass or vocal range), they sure seem to be following them down the same dirt road, blasting the radio in their own rusty pickup. Still, it’s a pretty fun ride.
Review by Rochelle Mabry
0 comments
Key Terms: country , working class

Older Posts
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)
Show your feminist cred by advertising. It's just $50/month for a 150x150 pixel banner ad. Reserve space for your business or project by emailing info@feministreview.org
.
Or click here:

To see all of our past supporters, check out this slideshow .
Email info@feministreview.org
to be subscribed to our weekly announcements and updates list!
We appreciate your support!

Feminist Review accepts all items for review including books, music, films, crafts, clothing, assessories, and other products. Please send items to:
Feminist Review
PO Box 1683
Athens, GA 30603
Via UPS/FedEx to:
2284 Shoal Creek Road
Colbert, GA 30628
Feminist Review is a group of nearly 400 wonderful writers. Each week a different writer's bio is featured here so you can get to know us better.
LIZZ CLEMENTS
Lizz Clements is a 26-year-old writer currently living in West Virginia. She founded the
Wizrocklopedia , a website devoted to music belonging to the genre known as "wizard rock." Since beginning the site in 2006, she has traveled to over ten states and into
Canada covering events with photography, video, and words. She is pursuing a career in writing and arts.
To see more of our writers, visit our Flickr pics .
If you'd like to write reviews for us, email info@feministreview.org
or just add your own comments to the published reviews. Everyone's a critic, right?



Apostate
 Art Utopia
Balls to Congress
 Blogarama


Brittany Shoot
 Cinexxus
CircumScribe


Confessions of a Music Addict
 DearURG
Digging to China


Duncan Heights
 Generation A C D
Graveyard Art Lens
 Grounded


H. V. Cramond
 HollaBackNYC
HollaBackTALK


It Only Takes a Spark
 Jennifer Wilson
JJ's Travels
 Kerri Kanelos
 Liberal Debutante
 MFA Bitch
 Mitten and Moustache


Mommy With an Attitude
 Our Bodies, Our Blog
Plus Size Connoisseur


Riot Kitty
 Sauce!
Sense & Sensuality
 Sexy Funky Fun!


Shirari Blog
 Shoetube size ate.


Supposed Newlywed Bliss
 The Curated Object
The World is an Oyster
 Third Rail Themes

 Two Plus Two Makes For...
 Watch as the Empire Falls


Wet Streets
 What's Good for Girls
Woman Writer
 Write On!
 Your Takeoff Hat
 June (75)


May (90)
 April (90)
March (82)


February (86)
 January (91)
December (89)


November (84)
 October (92)
September (90)
 August (93)


July (90)
 June (90)
May (95)


April (91)
 March (94)
February (63)


January (32)
 December (30)
November (12)
Check out our moderation guidelines for comments here .
Subscribe in a reader